Hello Kitten

[Sportsdude]

Oh no gopher this place is boresville.  In one area where huge growth has taken place things start to shut down at 5 or 6pm.  Malls are only open til 9:30.  The place is joke if you ask me.  Its almost as bad as Nova Scotia and its no shopping on Sundays. In fact, until recently, this very catholic rooted town didn't sell alcohol on Sundays.  Things close down at 5pm on Sundays. And opened late here is like 11pm.

[Gopher]

Hard to believe that St. Louis is a big city!

However, don't be too concerned, there are Boresvilles all over the place - it's just that your's seems to be more boring than most. Does it really have NOTHING going for it (apart from your presence, of course)?

[Sportsdude]

Well it depends on what you mean by going for it. There are some great things in St. Louis

The zoo (although watch out for the smokers they have free reign over the place and someone made light of it in the paper today and like any town with nothing on its mind its all over the news)

But its one of the best in the country and its free.

[A href="vny!://www.stlzoo.org/"]vny!://www.stlzoo.org/[/A]

  Then there is the Muny which is the largest and oldest open air theatre in the United States.  Family has season tickets we go to a play every week. It holds 12,000 people with an extra 1,000 free seats in the back.

[A href="vny!://www.muny.org/"]vny!://www.muny.org/[/A]

  Then there is Forest Park where the only good stuff in Saint Louis is. It was the site of the 1904 World's Fair.  Its bigger than Central Park in New York.  It holds the zoo, muny, art musem, history musem, Saint Louis Science Center, Jewel Box, Boat House, Steinberg outdoor skating rink and miles of bike paths and 3 golf course. Forest Park is great.

[A href="vny!://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/"]vny!://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/[/A]

  Then there is the Fox Theatre and Powell Hall which use to be giant movie theatres back in the twenties when going to the movies was an art form.  Now the Fox is huge indoor stage place, where broadway shows come during the winter when they can't go to the muny, holds 4,278 people plus 234 club seats.  Powell Hall now is where the the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is at. The Powell Hall holds 2,689 people.  

  [A href="vny!://www.fabulousfox.com/"]vny!://www.fabulousfox.com/[/A]

[A href="vny!://www.slso.org/powell/index.htm"]vny!://www.slso.org/powell/index.htm[/A]

  Then there is Soulard (the french quarter), The Hill (Italian nieghbourhood where yogi berra and company grew up, best italian resturants in the country can be found there) and Laclede's landing the last remaining old part of St. Louis that date backs to 1850.  Most of that area was destroyed to build the Saint Louis Arch.

  [A href="vny!://www.lacledeslanding.org/"]vny!://www.lacledeslanding.org/[/A]

[A href="vny!://www.slfp.com/Soulard.htm"]vny!://www.slfp.com/Soulard.htm[/A]

[A href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hill_(Saint_Louis"]vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hill_(Saint_Louis[/A])

[A href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulard_%28St._Louis%2C_Missouri%2C_USA%29"]vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulard_%28St._Louis%2C_Missouri%2C_USA%29[/A]

[A href="vny!://www.nps.gov/jeff/"]vny!://www.nps.gov/jeff/[/A]

  Oh and there is the Eads Bridge the longest bridge in the world when it was built in 1874.

[A href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eads_Bridge"]vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eads_Bridge[/A]

  Those are the good things about the town (not including Union Station which was the biggest train station in the midwest but was turned into a mall and his been a flop).  There are a lot of bad things that I have talked about on numerous occasions about the place, which I have documented.

The things I mentioned are the St. Louis success stories. Thats the stuff they want you to see and not the failures like the Keil Opera house, urban decay of North Saint Louis, still present today segregation, ghettoization of East Saint Louis, crime and failed downtown renewal projects. And the urban sprawl to the suburbs due to 'white flight'.

[A href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight"]vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight[/A]  

[P.C.]

Good morning Kitten,

On the fly, but thought I's pop in and say HI !!!!!  Sending some beautiful roses for you....enjoy your day.

  [img height=327 src="vny!://www.prairiefuture.com/gallery/photos/roses.jpg" width=441]

[kitten]

Good morning, P.C.  Thank you for the lovely roses.  I wish I could take them out and put them in a vase!  Have a very good day at work.  Hope you're feeling well.

[kitten]

MORNING LAMENT

  A large convocation of crows

Arrived to disturb my repose

I grumbled and said

"I'll get out of bed

For I won't get more sleep, heaven knows!"

[Gopher]

I'd like some roses too, Princess Charisma

[kitten]

  Here's a little pal to keep you company while you work.  

[Gopher]

You're really almost TOO considerate, ma'am. What's his name?

[kitten]

I think he said it was Twinkie, but he lisps a lot so it's hard to tell.

[Gopher]

I have a lot of visitors coming this week, I'll introduce him to all of them.

[kitten]

Be sure he's on his best behaviour.  He tends to bite when he's annoyed.  Oh, and he also slobbers when he's happy.

[Gopher]

Well, I've got all sorts coming this week, so he'll really be able to display his full repertoire.    

[kitten]

If you play soothing music, he calms right down.

[Gopher]

That's useful to know. One of the groups who are coming tomorrow very often bring an ancient soubrette with them who sings songs gathered from all sorts of peculiar memory lanes. Think he'll like those?